It has been known for many years that joining the blood systems of an old and a young mouse will cause the old mouse to show signs of reverting to robust youth. Of course, joining the blood systems of two humans is not realistic, so the idea of young blood transfused into older people came about. Experiments with animals indicated this would have benefits.

A "trial " is currently under way. For $US 8,000, a person can get two litres of young blood transfused into his or her. There is some doubt as to whether this can be called a proper trial. For example, there is no control group. So we must ask if it is simply a way to make money. Certainly, older wealthy people have turned up in numbers for the treatment. To do the 'researchers ' a little credit there is more evidence for this treatment than other treatments supposed to restore youth. At least it has been found to give benefits in animal tests. So far there are claims of significant benefits, but that could, of course, be the placebo effect.

How does it work ? Three possible mechanisms.1. For mice joined together, the older mouse gets the benefit of better heart to pump blood and better kidneys and liver to make the quality of the blood better.2. Possibly young blood contains protein factors for health and vigor.3. Old blood may contain materials that cause inflammation and other harm. Diluting this may help.

This work may lead to alternative ways of helping older people, if we learn exactly what creates the benefits. For example, methods of reducing harmful substances or increasing levels of helpful substances might come about. The current situation will carry an ethical question.

Lance: excellent summary. "3. Old blood may contain materials that cause inflammation and other harm. Diluting this may help." /// "Inflamation" and "radicals" is a field still wide open for discoveries. I wonder "if I were filthy rich" if I might invest in a dialysis machine to hook into when time permitted? Really give that blood a good washing. I recall early action on Aids noted that aids positive patient blood could be "filtered" through dialysis to actually kill or remove the infected cells greatly inhibiting any ill affects from the disease. Just too expensive and impracticable.

Always amuses me when very rich people die from simple ignorance re basic healthcare/life-extension principles. I'm not a germaphobe and think I am strengthening my immune system by eating food that has fallen on the floor......but I do need to keep working on not rubbing my eyes with my fingers.

I absolutely believe there is a range from simple and cheap to complex and expensive things that can be done to increase health/longevity.................we just don't know what they are.

Real Name: bobbo the existential pragmatic evangelical anti-theist and Class Warrior.Asking: What is the most good for the most people?Sample Issue: Should the Feds provide all babies with free diapers?

On dialysis.Yes, that has possibilities, but it is too much of a hassle, and too painful, for most people. Maybe if a better system can be designed..........

Yeah....a few months ago some health nut who exercised and was on a specific calorie deficient diet died........forget why. The issue I raised was how MONEY not common sense had potential.

Real Name: bobbo the existential pragmatic evangelical anti-theist and Class Warrior.Asking: What is the most good for the most people?Sample Issue: Should the Feds provide all babies with free diapers?

Anything that reliably transfers wealth from the old to the young is fine with me as long as it doesn't cause harm.

I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

Spoiler:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.- Douglas Adams

Sounds like someone was reading Heinlein, specifically Methuselah's Children, which centers around the Howard Families persecution by the short-lived...until they discover that transfusions from young donors extend the lives of older recipients.

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge."—Carl Sagan

"Every philosophy is tinged with the coloring of some secret imaginative background, which never emerges explicitly into its train of reasoning."—Alfred North Whitehead

"Knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world."—Louis Pasteur

I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

Spoiler:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.- Douglas Adams

gorgeous wrote:.Al Gore with Clinton on the campaign road was asked why he had jars of blood in his suitcase....

Complete crap from start to finish. Alex Jones on Infowars made up this story on air. There is no basis to this story and Gorgeous has forgotten that blood needs to be refrigerated and not just carried around in a suitcase. .